


The Garden

by amidtheflowers, Sigridhr



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Romance, Unapologetic Shmoop, flowers and plants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23300254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amidtheflowers/pseuds/amidtheflowers, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sigridhr/pseuds/Sigridhr
Summary: Carol suspected Darcy was up to something, but she could never have imagined it would be quite this lovely.
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 26
Kudos: 27
Collections: Marching Orders





	1. Chapter 1

[](https://imgur.com/2OGavTy)


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy Lewis was being suspicious.

Carol didn’t say this lightly. There was always something slightly mischievous about her best friend and lover, and if she said this to Darcy she’d only laugh and say it was the _je ne sais quoi_ quality Darcy naturally carried. Carol could hardly disagree.

Carol loved Darcy’s mischief. It usually entailed a missing pair of socks that turned up on their dresser, wrapped cozily around Carol’s plush rabbit (she had one, she had no shame, it was the last remaining thing she still had from childhood). It entailed Darcy sticking chopsticks in her mouth and doing an impression of Bruce Banner that sounded eerily close. Sometimes it would be when Darcy accidentally used the last of Carol’s premium ground coffee beans, looking quite adorable in her apology, only for Carol to find two brand new bags sitting on the kitchen counter and Darcy giggling uncontrollably.

Carol’s heart swelled just thinking about it.

This, though, Carol could say with confidence, was slightly different than the Darcyisms that Carol so loved. It was sneaky things. Furtive looks. Searching things on her tablet and then switching apps when Carol passed by. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“I can’t quite put my finger on it,” said Carol one day, as they sat finishing up lunch, “but you’re being suspicious.”

“Am I?” Darcy’s confused look was so genuine that Carol nearly dropped the subject altogether. If it wasn’t for the tiny twitch on the corner of her mouth.

Carol’s eyes narrowed. “Lying to your captain, are we?”

Darcy’s eyes darkened, the half-eaten lunch suddenly forgotten. She leaned in close until their breaths mingled. “Oh Captain,” said Darcy, her voice a low, husky whisper, “my _dear_ Captain…”

Lunch was overrated anyway.

**-:-**

“But can’t we just tell Tony _after_ the weekend that his propeller broke on the last mission,” Carol complained, but let Darcy drag her down the corridor anyway. It was their day off, which was no easy thing to come by. Darcy was always working in the research department, and Carol was always flying off somewhere to stop the latest _New York Times_ worthy menace. And as it was their day off, they’d gotten dressed up with the notion that they’d be going out for lunch. Carol had even let Darcy put makeup on her. It was a _big deal_.

“Yeah, but also we can just get this over now,” Darcy said in a cheerful tone. “Plus, it’s along the way.”

Goose, who was currently being held comfortably in Darcy’s arm, meowed agreeably.

They stepped into an elevator and Darcy punched in the floor button. Carol sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. May as well be efficient. That way we’ll feel less weight over our free time.”

“That’s the spirit.” Darcy gave Carol a winning smile.

When the elevator _ding_ ed and the doors slid open, Carol paused. She stared at the hallway that wasn’t the hallway she'd been expecting. “Hey, this isn’t Tony’s floor.”

“Nope.” Darcy led Carol out of the elevator and down the hall. It was the research department Darcy worked in.

Carol started smiling. “You _were_ being sneaky.”

“Yep.” Darcy popped the _p_ , and slide her gaze to Carol’s with a mischievous smile.

Carol followed Darcy through a door labeled _Foster-Lewis Laboratories_. It was an enormous room with several adjoining rooms that led to stock closets, chemical labs, an electrical engineering room…but Darcy didn’t lead her to any of those. Darcy led Carol to the back end of the lab where a sleek-looking machine sat.

“What’s that?” Carol asked.

Darcy smiled, standing straighter. “Jane’s life’s work, with my help. It’s a machine version of a Bifröst. It simulates the particle compulsion that a collapsing star ejects, making an Einstein-Rosen bridge.”

“The Bifröst,” Carol repeated. Carol wasn’t savvy in science, but she knew that word well. Darcy’d spent the past three years working on it with Jane.

Darcy nodded. For the first time in days, Darcy looked slightly nervous. “This is me, um, romancing you, by the way. We’re gonna turn on this hunk of platinum and jettison out of here.”

Carol’s face broke into a grin. “Are we going on an impromptu vacation? Like I’ve always wanted?”

“Heck yes, we are. We’re even bringing Goose. I think he’ll like where we’re going.”

“You really thought this all through,” said Carol with no small amount of wondrous amusement.

Darcy glanced at Carol, her eyes full of warmth. “Of course I did. It’s for you.”

Overwhelmed, she reached for Darcy. Darcy planted a soft kiss on Carol’s lips before pressing a button on the machine. “You should hold on to me,” said Darcy, amusement twinkling in her eyes. “Wow. I finally got to say that.”

Carol laughed and wrapped her arms around Darcy, pressing her face in long, lustrous locks as the Bifröst machine burst into bright illuminating light.

**-:-**

The change was instantaneous. Hard ground became soft grass; fluorescent lights were replaced by sunlight shining brilliantly above. The sweet smell of vegetation and _life_ surrounded them. Carol opened her eyes.

“Holy cow.” Carol’s eyes went wide as she made a circle where she stood, taking in their surroundings. “We didn’t die, did we? We’re not in the Good Place by accident?”

Darcy smiled as she let Goose go, who sprang off toward the daisies, then wrapped an arm around Carol’s waist and propped her chin on her shoulder. “Not dead. Just pretty.”

Carol deeply breathed in the spring-sweet air. They were standing in slightly overgrown grass that was two weeks shy of mowing, with a row of daisies lined up in front of a white wooden fence. It was the front lawn of a cottage-like home; Carol had seen them before, built in an old architectural style that she was familiar with. Tilting her head, Carol registered the damp humidity that clung around them.

“Are we in Louisiana?” Carol asked suddenly.

Darcy started grinning and nodded gently. “Yes.”

Carol’s mind starting putting pieces together, and her eyes grew wide. She turned to Darcy in shock. “Is this all yours?”

Darcy bit her lip against a smile and nodded again. “Ever since, you know…the years that time forgot, I’ve been wanting to put down roots somewhere. I’ve been more than loaded since working with Tony and Jane, and I just…wanted to make something beautiful. For me. For you…” Darcy’s eyes flickered a bit, before she continued so softly that Carol nearly missed it, “for us.”

Carol stared at Darcy for a long moment. Darcy moved away a little, giving them a little space that felt completely too far way for Carol’s comfort. “It’s okay if this is too much for you. This wasn’t me like, making a decision for the both of us,” Darcy said quickly, “I really do want to put roots down somewhere. I thought, you know, with us, and you talked about wanting to live closer to Maria and Monica—”

Carol stepped forward and cupped Darcy’s jaw in her hands. “I love it,” said Carol simply, her smile blinding. Tension melted away from Darcy’s body, and Carol kissed her.

**-:-**

Darcy had been hard at work for _months_.

The Bifröst machine had been working for some time. It was all about range now—how much further could it take them? It could transport comfortably across Earth, but could it go beyond that?

It was how Darcy had managed it. She’d used the Bifröst to get herself to the garden district in New Orleans. Carol was beyond impressed as Darcy gave her a walking tour.

Flowerbeds had been put down in front of the cottage and a good portion of the lawn. There were sweet williamses and woodland phloxes, perennial wildflowers that were pushing from the soil. The back garden was lush and full of green and ripening tomatoes, crops of peppers and eggplants just poking out from their stems. There were birds of paradise plants and hibiscuses; canna lilies and bougainvillea; elephant ears that Carol knew would grow as tall as herself.

It was beautiful and sweet-smelling and Darcy picked a ripe tomato from its vine and wiped it on her dress before biting into it, juice running down her lip. Smiling, she handed the other half to Carol and passed it between her lips. Somewhere near a wildflower, Goose gave it a gentle sniff.

Stone steps had been pressed into the earth, leading a pretty trail to a bird bath with a garden arbor sitting above it, vines already coiling around the wood. When the sky grew overcast and a light sprinkling of rain began, the little bees working around the lilies snuck underneath the flower petals and went to sleep. Darcy’s hand linked through Carol’s and she led her inside the house.

Carol’s breath caught as she walked behind Darcy. It was almost difficult following Darcy’s explanations of where she’d nabbed the furniture and the writing desk that was definitely not Napoleonic but the girl at the estate sale tried convincing her it was; the sheer splendor of the home was breathtaking. It was small and cozy and there was a red and gold throw that had been missing for a few days that Carol didn’t realize had been missing until now.

Many places were left empty, which Darcy explained was for Carol’s choice of furniture whenever she wanted to pick some out, and that nearly had Carol break down because Carol couldn’t _remember_ the last time she picked out furniture, let alone with a girlfriend. She didn’t even have her own place. She lived with Darcy because it made sense to live with Darcy, but before that—where had Carol been? It was one planet after the next, diplomatic accommodations, or crashing at Maria’s and playing with her goddaughter.

This felt like home. It was the string of pearls and string of hearts in the hanging planters throughout the kitchen. It was the philodendron brasil and neon pothos and maranta, the rabbit’s foot fern and the monsteras, the spider plants and dieffenbachias that filled their home to the same affect as the scent of warm pie does on a summer day. It was the conservatory in the back of the house that opened into the back garden, filled with greenery and warmth. It was the clawfoot bathtub with delicate candles sitting along the west-facing window. It was all the little things Darcy had done to make this _theirs_ , pouring her love for Carol with her hands in the soil and seeds, to make it soft and warm and welcoming that Carol knew she was past overwrought and was openly crying.

“I love you,” Darcy whispered, her arms wrapped tightly around Carol, whispering it over and over, “I love you so much. I love you. You’re my stardust.”

**-:-**

Goose was purring contentedly in Darcy’s lap after spending a productive afternoon chasing butterflies and rolling in a particularly green part of grass. When the drizzle had stopped they’d gone out again, this time Carol commenting on all the things she’d like to add to the garden as Darcy picked flowers and wove them into crowns. Darcy had looked like a goddess with the crown and the flowing dress, and was grateful for the high overgrowth around them that shielded eyes from just how much Carol decided to worship her in that moment.

It was sundown now, and they were sitting on a sofa in the living room.

“I think I want a bookcase,” said Carol after some thought.

Darcy perked up. “Ooh, yes. We could use a few good ones.”

“I’m thinking there and there. Maybe one in the bedroom too?”

“Perfect.”

“I really liked that writing desk,” Carol added.

“It’s awesome, right?” Darcy beamed.

“It is.”

“I found another one in an antique shop that I think would go great in the next room.”

“Cool. I’m going to marry you.”

Darcy froze, eyes blown wide. Her hand stopped in its movement of petting Goose, who let out an unhappy meow. Finally, she said, “Are you, now.”

“Mhm. I just thought I’d let you know.”

A half-smile cracked through Darcy’s surprise. “Is this your way of proposing?”

“Oh, no,” Carol shook her head, looking gravely serious. “You’ll know when I propose to you. Trust me.”

A tremulous little smile made its way across Darcy’s face, and she started stroking Goose’s fur again. “Alright, then. I’ll be waiting.”

“Good.” Carol flashed grin and started laughing, which got Darcy laughing, enough that Goose jumped from her lap. They scooted closer and Carol tucked a strand of hair behind Darcy’s ear, gently scraping her nails against Darcy’s scalp. “Who even was I before you?”

Darcy smiled softly. “You were Carol Danvers. Now you’re Carol with a home.”

Skating her fingers along Carol's jaw, Darcy pressed their lips together.


End file.
